It’s 6 o’clock on a Sunday morning in March, not long after Daylight Savings Time has robbed everyone of an extra hour of sleep. Still, the feature rink at the Northtown Center in Amherst is buzzing with pint-sized hockey players chasing a rubber ball around the ice.
Sometimes it’s a rubber ball, other times it’s a plastic pizza or a rubber chicken that they track. It’s all part of the plan to learn basic skating skills under the tutelage of a small group volunteer coaches decked out in matching warmup suits.
Before taking the ice, Tom Barnett enters the locker room where kids are quietly getting ready for their Learn to Shamrock session and says, “You can get out on the ice early. But don’t tell anybody. IT’S A SECRET.”
And with that the locker room empties out and the chaos spills onto the ice.
And for the next hour, it’s all fun and crazy games that include relay races where players dive on rink dividers and ride them as far down the ice as their momentum will take them before the next teammate takes over.
It’s a different atmosphere from what will take place in a couple hours as the top teams from around New York will enter the final stage in their battle for a state title.
Watching Barnett and his loyal legion of volunteer coaches cheer on the 68 kids on the ice, it’s hard to tell who’s having more fun. Based on the smiles, pats on the head and high fives, the smart money is on the 66-year-old Barnett, who was the first recipient of the Mark Messier Youth Leadership Award in 2009.
“I used to be 6-3 with a full head of hair,” Barnett laughs as he lifts his silver Bauer helmet to reveal a clean scalp. “It’s amazing what hockey did to me.”
It’s not so much what hockey has done to Barnett, it’s what he has done for hockey.
It all started when his sons, Oliver and Cloogie, began playing the game in the Buffalo area. It didn’t take long for the former goalie who played at Canisius College to want more for his sons and other kids than the “win at all costs” mentality that was prevalent in most youth organizations.
“I thought things could have been done more efficiently and probably better. And I thought a lot of times hockey seems to be driven by politics or by social or other pressures beyond focusing just on the kids,” Barnett says.
“I started writing a curriculum about how I thought a hockey program could be run. And in 2001, we launched the Buffalo Shamrocks based on sportsmanship, team play, personal responsibility, positive, team-first attitudes.”
In fact, those words are literally inscribed inside the collars of every Shamrocks jersey and form the bedrock of a program that recently completed its 24th season.
Since the first season it has grown every season to more than 250 USA Hockey registered players ranging from a Learn to Play program through Bantams. There is a waiting list of families who want to be part of the program, and most already in the door adhere to the philosophy of “once a Shamrock, always a Shamrock.”
“If you make it fun for the kids and they stay in the game longer, the odds of them breaking that 12-year-old barrier and continuing on is a really good thing,” says Barnett, who proudly points out that for their third consecutive season the retention rate in the Shamrocks girls’ teams is 100 percent retention rate.
“Who could boast that about anything in any business? We’re proud of what we do and what we offer; the experience of being a Shamrock. People can’t wait to be a part of it. It’s unlike anything they’ve ever seen. It’s grown into the Rolling Stones on tour.”
As much as players and parents in the area have taken notice, so too have others in the hockey world, as evidenced by Barnett being the first recipient of the inaugural Mark Messier Youth Leadership Award. Despite the banner that hangs in the Northtown Center celebrating his honor, he is quick to point out that it’s about much more than any one individual.
“It was a nice thing, certainly, but I think most people in our program would agree that it wasn’t about honoring me. Everyone felt honored by it. It was an affirmation that this is a great place to be,” Barnett says.
His son, Cloogie, agrees. As a player just getting started in the program at the time, and he said that everyone involved took pride in the honor.
“I think it was validation for the program,” he says. “Sometimes that outside pat on the back says keep going. You’re making a difference. Who doesn’t want to hear that? But that was pretty surreal coming from Mark Messier. He’s a legend and a pillar of the game. It’s pretty cool.”
Along the way Barnett has received input from some of the hockey elite in the Buffalo area, from Sabres current coach Lindy Ruff to the legendary Scotty Bowman, a long-time resident in the area before moving to Sarasota, Fla.
The season runs from the beginning of October until the middle of March, or fittingly for the Shamrocks, right around St. Patrick’s Day. The first month is called Rocktober – Bowman’s idea – and features a return to the ice for many players who have been encouraged to compete in other sports or activities throughout the summer and early fall. By the time they return to the ice the anticipation and excitement is palpable, and the Shamrocks provide plenty of ice time to harness that energy.
More than a typical tryout, it’s a chance for coaches to see where players stack up before assigning them to one of several squads, a varsity, junior varsity or club team.
“We don’t offer tryouts. I don’t think it’s fair to kid to give an hour of ice with the team that’s already pre-picked and hoping that maybe [former Sabres great] Gilbert Perreault falls out of the sky and ‘oh, I guess we’ll take him even though we didn’t plan on him,’ and then sending other kids home,” Barnett says.
“We’d rather offer opportunity where kids to play hockey. So, the kids that are our Shamrocks, those Squirts, Peewees or Bantams, they’ll skate together in multiple different interchangeable groups through that month and then we pick our teams.”
Although they are registered members of USA Hockey, Shamrock teams are not part of any local league but rather cobble together a competitive schedule that also allows them to maintain a strictly adhered to practice-to-game schedule throughout the season.
“I don’t want to indict other hockey programs because people do a lot of good things out there,” Barnett says. “I think people proactively select the Shamrocks for what we stand for and what we believe in. I think people work really hard raising their kids and sometimes they don’t necessarily vet the programs their kids are getting into, and sometimes they don’t align with their own ethos, moral compasses and so forth.”
That ethos is emblazoned on the back of every Shamrocks jersey in the form of the Latin phrase “Te Non Timeo,” which translates to “I am not afraid.” As far as Barnett is concerned, that phrase runs the gamut of actions and emotions that form the cornerstone of everything the program has always stood for, and always will.
“I’m not afraid of getting better. I’m not afraid of being a good teammate. I’m not afraid of getting back up, and I’m not afraid of facing adversity. I’m not afraid of success,” he says. “That’s all part of our belief in this.”
To see him cruising around the ice in his old white goalie skates, fist-bumping and high-fiving players, laughing with coaches and smiling at the parents in the stands, one would never know that there is another side of Barnett. For the past 30 years he has built a successful business of designing custom-made suits for many of the top players in the game.
He has stores in New York, Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills, but he spends his time close to home at his store in the Buffalo suburbs, where he and Cloogie welcome an array of NHL stars from the Sabres as well as visiting teams in town on a road trip.
Together they make every player feel welcome as they talk about their latest game as they take their measurements for a custom suit that is hand stitched with great care and precision.
Among his many fashion accomplishments is a suit made to commemorate Alex Ovechkin breaking Wayne Gretzky’s goal-scoring record. The lining of the suit featured a graphic of pucks that chronicle the 895 goals he’s scored along with his Great 8 Chase logo. The inside tags were all sewn in with yellow thread to match the color of Ovechkin’s skate laces.
With all he has going on in his “day job,” Barnett still gets excited about spending his weekends on the ice with the Shamrocks. On the final day of the season, he logged more than seven hours at the Nichols School rink, the program’s home ice. From the first Learn to Skate session right on through to the final Bantam session, Barnett never lets up. For all his success off the ice, this remains his happy place. And the look on his face says all you need to know – there’s no place he’d rather be.
“I’ve got a screw loose, obviously,” he laughs as he welcomes the next shift onto the ice. “My lovely wife is the love of my life. But hockey’s right up there.
“I personally have a blast out there. This was as rewarding a year as I think we’ve ever had. I’ve never seen things click the way they’ve clicked and more joy in the program.”
That is until the puck drops next season when the Shamrocks celebrate their 25th season. And Barnett is already working on plans to make that the best season yet.